When I first got an Instant Pot, I was sort of skeptical of its ability to make yogurt. Not that I doubted that it could—I just wasn’t sure of the point. Yogurt is easy to buy, and it’s not a processed food.

But the New York Times recently ran a story on the wonders of yogurt making, and I got curious to try it. Particularly as I hadn’t used the Instant Pot in a while.

The New York Times emphasized the importance of using very fresh, great-tasting milk as the base. And here’s where being Canadian is problematic, because we have supply management. And supply management means that basically all of our milk (and butter) is uniformly the same bland product. (Why is food so great in France? In part, because they have better butter!)

I won’t turn this into a treatise into supply management, but… The only milk I could think of that actually claimed to be different in some way was Eby Manor’s Golden Guernsey Milk. And it was produced right in my home town, which I hoped meant it was pretty fresh.

Could I taste the difference? Actually, as I never drink milk on its own (that is, not in cereal or a smoothie or something), I figured I’d never be able to tell anyway. Now I’m thinking I should have done a taste test between it and whatever “normal” milk I had on hand. Next time, I guess.

The only other ingredient—since I couldn’t find yogurt starter—was a yogurt with “active cultures” to act as the starter. So yes, to make yogurt, you generally have to buy a tub of yogurt, of which you’ll use only 2 Tablespoons.

The elapsed time for making yogurt is quite lengthy (basically it’s an all-day thing), but the working time is short and the process is easy. Sterilize the milk; let it cool to room temperature; whisk in the yogurt; cover the Instant Pot and let it run on the Yogurt cycle for 8 hours. Cool, then chill the result.

So this makes plain yogurt. And how good can plain yogurt be, right? But actually: pretty damn good! Like, it’s still plain yogurt, but I’ve never had such a nice tasting and beautifully textured plain yogurt. Of course, this would be the freshest yogurt I’ve ever had, so I suppose that’s part of it.

I was asked if it’s possible to make Greek yogurt; yes it is, by straining the yogurt first. You could also make flavored yogurts, but I don’t really see the point; with plain, you can produce whatever flavor you want by adding fruit or flavorings. (Think you’ll find that not much sugar is necessary.)

While I wouldn’t go so far as to say you should buy an Instant Pot just to make yogurt (as apparently some people do), if you have one anyway, you might want to try this functionality.